Nurse practitioner Marian Blaesser goes over a chart in the bone marrow transplant unit at Northside Hospital in Atlanta.

A move from Michigan to Georgia cost Marian Blaesser, NP, the authority to sign her own prescriptions. As the new state chair of the United Advanced Practice Registered Nurses of Georgia, she's fighting to get it back.

Blaesser is hosting a meeting between Atlanta APRNs and DeKalb County state legislators and is encouraging other chapters to hold similar events and conduct telephone and write-in campaigns.

Blaesser became a nurse in 1992 and a nurse practitioner in 2000.

"As an older nurse, I wanted to have more autonomy and a voice in where health care is going. It's hard to do that at the bedside," she said.

Not finding an oncology job in Michigan, she interviewed at Northside Hospital in Atlanta. "I didn't plan to move to Atlanta, but I came in the springtime and loved it."

Getting to create the job of nurse practitioner in the bone marrow transplant/leukemia unit at Northside was "an awesome experience."

"My main responsibility is patient care. I make rounds independently and then with the physician each morning. I order tests, perform bone marrow biopsies and skin biopsies," she said.

Blaesser also serves as a resident expert to educate nurses both informally and through continuing education presentations.

"In this job, I feel like a leader," she said. "It offers all the challenge and autonomy I wanted and then some, but the most satisfying part is the relationships I develop with patients and their families."

Blaesser could write her own prescriptions when she worked in Michigan and Texas, but her DEA number is not valid in Georgia.

"Having prescriptive authority won't make any difference in the way I practice," Blaesser said. "I have the doctor's authority to call a prescription in under his number. I'd just like to have credit for what I'm doing." She is confused by the opposition of physicians in Georgia.

A nurse practitioner only enhances a doctor's practice, she explained. If a doctor sees 30 patients a day, and a nurse practitioner sees an additional 20 to 30 patients without his or her supervision, an office can treat more patients.

"He's doubled his patient load without doubling his work at less cost. It's an enhancement to his practice," she said. Excited about the grassroots efforts taking place around the state, Blaesser said "We'll get there. I'm feeling con?dent that 2006 will be our year."